


kisses

by kwritten



Series: Finding a Balance [8]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F, Meme
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-06-25
Packaged: 2018-04-06 02:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4203702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwritten/pseuds/kwritten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of semi-related ficlets for a kisses meme, chapter titles are the prompt.<br/>mainly buffy/tara</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 19. sad kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy/Tara: sad kiss
> 
> (background/implied Dawn/original female)

Tara is having a day from hell. Well, maybe not  _hell_  - she's had too many conversations with Anya and Fred to really think that very many hell dimensions are even all that bad compared to their own. But the imagery feels right and so she goes with it, hoping for a long hot bath when she gets home and no chores. 

  
Of course she first has to pick up Dawnie from softball practice and Sunnydale decides that it is a perfect day for a weird storm and there's no way to prevent her books from getting wet when Thea and Dawn pile into the backseat, grins bright and wide on their faces and mud covering them from head to toe.  
  
They get Papa Murphy's on the way home because there's no way in  _hell_  she's cooking tonight.   
  
The power is out when they get home and she has a minor heart attack that she forgot to pay the bill and then Dawn and Thea tease her because the whole neighborhood is dark and they eat all the food they can scrape together from the fridge.   
  
She tries to smile at their giggles and antics but can't because she's so hellishly grouchy. As soon as she can, she disappears upstairs to the room she keeps wanting to say is  _ours_ , but will always just feel like  _Buffy's_ , a dripping candle in one hand.   
  
Buffy is lying on the bed in the fetal position, holding Mr. Gordo to her chest and staring blankly out the window.   
  
"Oh my god," Tara leans against the door and sighs. "Please tell me it's not that time of the month, because I've had a day from hell and I don't us both to be bitchy, Dawn will try to move in with Spike again."  
  
Buffy rolls over to face Tara and smiles wanly, "That's not it, sorry for not being downstairs."   
  
Tara turns to the calendar on the wall, hoping for a biological explanation for her current mood (since her day from _hell_  was actually probably a pretty good day all things considered, she had just been in a  _mood_  and wasn't yet willing to admit it). She scanned the page on the wall, a kitten chewing on a ball of yarn looking down at her from above the grid of dates, and tried to remember what day it was. Was it Thursday? Wednesday?  
  
"What's the date, anyway?" and then there it was, staring up at her in Buffy's scrawl:  
  
_Mom's Birthday ♥_  
  
Tara turned, set the candle down on the desk, and then crawled into bed, taking Buffy's hands in hers, "Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry."  
  
"It's okay. I didn't ..." Buffy sighed, closing her eyes. Several tears broke free with the gesture and rolled down her pale face. "It's okay."  
  
"It's not," Tara leaned her forehead against Buffy's and shifted her body closer to hers.  
  
They lay there for a minute, soft sounds of Dawn and Thea laughing drifting up from downstairs, the rain outside, the sounds of each other breathing gently in rhythm.   
  
After a while, the lights flickered back on, followed by a loud whoop from downstairs.  
  
"I'm so glad she's happy," Buffy said, her eyes still closed.   
  
Tara kissed her softly on the mouth, it was a little salty from Buffy's tears and the taste made Tara's heart break slightly.   
  
"Me too."  
  
"I'm happy, too," Buffy said defensively, backing away a bit.   
  
Tara's eyes widened.  
  
"I mean - I'm sad right now, but  _generally_  very happy!"  
  
Tara chuckled and kissed her again, smiling against Buffy's soft lips. "It's okay to be sad today."  
  
Buffy sighed and relaxed, "Okay good. Because I am."


	2. 4. awkward kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buffy/Tara: awkward kisses

She is ninety-nine percent sure that this morning when she grabbed her coffee and keys off the table and was yelling at Dawn to get downstairs that she kissed her girlfriend on the chin on accident.   
  
Tara looks down at her planner and shrugs, hey - at least she landed it on her face this time, and then runs off to class.   
  
  
  
*  
  
  
  
"Ouch!"  
  
"Oh, sorry. Where are you?"  
  
"Over here."  
  
"Heyyyyy."  
  
"Um?"  
  
"Did I just kiss your elbow?"  
  
"I'm taking these damn things off."  
  
"No! It's fun! It'll work!"  
  
"Buffy, I can't see."  
  
"Okay, fine."  
  
"...?"  
  
"How the hell did your legs get all the way over there?"  
  
  
  
*  
  
  
  
Tara is definitely  _not_  mad at her. She's not. For one thing, she doesn't get mad really. For another, she doesn't hold a grudge. If she  _was_  mad, she'd say something.   
  
Buffy looks at her reflection sternly in the mirror, tying her hair back tightly and sighing before leaving the bathroom and going back to work.   
  
(Okay,  _maybe_  she shouldn't have tried to kiss her arm while she was trying to make pancakes and maybe it sounded like a good idea in her head, but the raw egg (the last raw egg in the house) that landed on her foot said otherwise, but like... Tara can't be  _mad_  about that forever, can she?)  
  
  
  
*  
  
  
  
Tara is lying on the couch, drifting out of consciousness while watching  _The Bachelorette_  under the sound of Dawn's commentary, when Buffy comes home.   
  
Buffy is crumbling on top of Tara on the couch in the exact moment that the other woman realizes she's home and rises to greet her.   
  
The ensuing crash of lips and teeth and heads brings tears to Tara's eyes. And after a (brief) period of laughing, Dawn is holding a bag of frozen peas to Tara's forehead and Buffy has a bag of ice wrapped in a towel held up to her bleeding lip.


End file.
